Bohemia Village Voice

President-elect Obama

Continuing our series on Bohemia, in Long Island, New York, librarian Diane reports on the recent US election.

I am very happy about the outcome of the election. I’m hopeful that the change will put us in the right direction. A work colleague was telling me that had McCain won the election her son was planning on relocating to another country. 
 Obama’s win was very exciting and it made me realize that our country has truly evolved. Even a couple of years ago, I didn’t believe that we would ever have a black or a woman president in my lifetime, but here it is. I’m delighted to see this. I am so happy with Obama’s win on several levels and it feels as if the dark clouds have lifted and there is sunlight streaming in again. It makes me feel like our world now has an opportunity to head in a positive direction on many issues.
Although I am ecstatic that Obama won, there aren’t a lot of other people in this area delighted with Obama’s win. This is an area where people usually vote Republican, especially in Presidential races. The good news is that people I know who said they voted for McCain are grateful that we will be getting a change, even though their candidate lost. A lot of us (Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, etc), feel like we are finally awakening from a bad dream. Forgive me for going on about the election, as you can tell, I enjoyed this election immensely. There are, if I remember correctly, five polling places in the Bohemia district. You might be surprised by the voting results for this area [table below].
Monster Raving Loony
The small parties receive little or no media attention here. I’m sure many people walk into the voting booth on Election Day surprised to see some of these other candidates listed on the ballot. It would be nice if our country could get beyond the two party mania. Many people feel, and rightfully so, that if you vote outside the two major parties—Democrat or Republican, you are throwing your vote away. In the 2000 election, Ralph Nader, who I believe was the Green Party candidate, was seen as one of the reasons Al Gore lost the election. After the 2000 election, it seems like the other parties went from very little media attention to none at all.  I know you have some strange sounding parties in the UK – I admit that I had to checkout this Monster Raving Loony Party. I haven’t seen anything like them on our ballot.They look like something you’d only see here on public access television late at night. However, I did see that there is The United States Official Monster Raving Loony Party, so maybe one day they’ll be listed. 
Ralph Nader
My stepson, who’s now a college student in California, got a job this summer collecting signatures for Ralph Nader to get his name on the ballot in New Hampshire. He got a dollar for every signature collected. Nader’s campaign fund also paid for a hotel room and his other expenses. In the end, I believe they were able to collect a total of about 4,500 signatures in New Hampshire which enabled Nader to be on the ballot. It’s amazing what these smaller parties go through to get on ballots.
They really have to knock on people’s doors because they don’t have a large base of people easily available to sign a petition, or do other needed work for them.

Diane Haberstroh